Trucking in the North of W.A.

[onetrack]

Here's a FB video, taken from a dash cam of a road train driver, running the Great Northern Hwy in the Pilbara region of W.A. (I think the clip is from around Karinjini). 

 

It's not until you travel the Gt Northern Hwy that you start to get an understanding of the multiple hundreds of billions that comes out of the mining, oil and gas and chemical industries of the North of W.A.

 

I only travel the lower 100 kms N of Perth on the GNH, where the maximum truck size is a B-triple (triple and quad road trains are only allowed to operate N of Wubin), 272 NNE of Perth on the GNH.

 

However, every day I travel the GNH, I pass probably around 200-300 double road trains, and oversize loads, all hauling equipment, supplies, vehicles and consumables for the industries in the North.

Ammonium Nitrate is trucked N in huge tonnages, diesel fuel the same, and the amount of mining machinery and vehicles (new going N, and well-used, coming S) is just mind boggling.

 

The oversize loads keep getting bigger and bigger. One time, they would dismantle the dump trucks and other earthmovers, now they carry them completely assembled on platform (multi-wheel - up to 164 wheels) low-loaders.

The dump trucks in this footage are just average size dump trucks. Some of the oversize equipment is 10 metres wide, and takes up the entire sealed road width (standard hwy width is 8 metres for 2 lanes).

 

The GNH has been widened to a minimum of 8M and many passing lanes installed. The bigger oversize has 3 escort vehicles out front and 1 behind. One of the leading escorts is a "Traffic Warden", a W.A. Police initiative, where they train these Wardens via mostly retired police officers, in how to handle traffic control. The Traffic Warden is the 2nd escort and drives down the wrong side of the hwy and forces all oncoming traffic to stop and get off onto the shoulder.

 

If there's a decent hill along the route, the traffic is stopped at top or bottom of the hill to allow the oversize loads to transit the hill safely. This can be annoying, as sometimes it holds you up for 20 mins, as the oversize trucks crawl up or down the hill.

You can see the Traffic Warden vehicle at the 3:43 section of the video, as he blocks the oncoming traffic for the oversize loads. It's not unusual to come across 2 or even 3 massive oversize rigs travelling in convoy.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1298602058939721

 

 

Edited August 2 by onetrack

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

Ammonium Nitrate is trucked N in huge tonnages, diesel fuel the same,

It's a good thing that trucks carrying either of those loads are going in the same direction. Imagine the explosion if they collided head on.

[onetrack]

OME - Well, I suppose there could be a level of risk in that situation - but ammonium nitrate can explode without diesel being added, it just needs to be heated and confined, and maybe even have an initial minor detonation.

Just a diesel spill from the fuel tanks of the truck transporting can be enough to set it off.

There have been a few bad AN explosions on the highways from trucks transporting bulk AN, but a low number in comparison to the amount being hauled.

The important thing is if you see a crashed truck carrying AN, and it's on fire, get at least 500 metres away from it!

There was a ripper in the NT a couple of years ago, fortunately the police cordoned off the burning wreck and got everyone well back from it. When it blew up, the crater was huge.

 

Edited August 2 by onetrack
'Murrican spellink....